Global Hybrid Public-Private Bodies: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

Abstract

Acting in concert, States, sporting institutions and members of the international community have created a body that is emblematic of the emergence of the new forms of hybrid public-private governance mechanisms in the global sphere: the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This article examines the structure and activities of this institution, in order to highlight a number of problems concerning the increasing use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) at the global level: the spread of normative functions carried out by global institutions and the binding force of these norms; the harmonization of different regulations at the global level; and the adoption of administrative law type mechanisms within global regimes and the emergence of global administrative law.

Keywords: global public-private partnerships, global norms, global administrative law, normative harmonization, anti-doping, international sports law